Sir: Regarding Memorial Arena and possible upgrades. In last week’s letter to the editor “Contest raises arena questions,” Brian Cleeve brought up some really good points about what to do with any money won for upgrades to our grand old ice skating and exhibition barn. Despite its age, this structure could probably last a long time yet, if more dollars were invested in its upkeep.
As for building a new twin pad arena, this is an idea that has been tossed around for at least 10 years since I first heard about that proposal, and due to changing financial and employment situations and other costly projects needed in Chatham-Kent, it seems that many of us will not see this twin pad project happen in our lifetime, despite the great love of indoor winter ice sports in our larger community of Chatham-Kent.
I have also heard that there are other arenas in our municipality that are underutilized, and others that probably could also stand improvements to their structures as well.
A more reasonable and possibly less costly solution, that has also been previously suggested, would be to build a new indoor ice pad connected to Chatham Memorial Arena, approximately where Kinsmen Auditorium used to stand. The Kiwanis soccer stadium next door would probably have to be moved to another location, but this may not cost as much as building a new twin pad arena somewhere else. With much proper planning, budgeting, and of course, fundraising, the project might be more viable than tearing down Memorial Arena and trying to build a new twin pad arena somewhere else.
This idea has been floated around in past discussions, but again, a new twin pad arena is, probably not likely in the near future. It is more likely upgrades to Memorial Arena in Chatham will be all that can be done for the immediate future.
A job well done, though, to Chad Peterson and the committee that did the work to the project to bring money to try and help with some of the much-needed work to keep Chatham Memorial Arena operable and open for the future.
Oh, yes, I did vote a number a number of times to support the work of Chad and the rest of that committee!
Frank Doyle
Chatham
